


Home for Christmas

by marvelsamwilson



Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Reunions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-26
Updated: 2017-12-26
Packaged: 2019-02-22 05:05:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,256
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13159875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marvelsamwilson/pseuds/marvelsamwilson
Summary: Canon divergence - Peggy is the new director of S.H.I.E.L.D. and she has one mission as her priority, and won't let anyone get in her way.





	Home for Christmas

**Author's Note:**

> Steggy Secret Santa gift for swiftletinthecloud.tumblr.com. Accompanying fan art posted at marvelsamwilson.tumblr.com

Hope. Hope is a funny word. It can be a beacon of light to people in the most dire of circumstances. Or it can be the crutch for the delusional, when reason should prevail. 

For Margaret Elizabeth "Peggy" Carter, it was the driving force of her life and her career. 

What happens when hope turns into defiance?

Peggy Carter. A woman who fought, scrapped, and clawed for everything she had in life. She scoffed at all those who told her that her hope was wasted. She would prove them all for wrong. She would keep hope alive, and keep fighting until the last ounce of life left her body.

So many people laughed in her face when she mentioned her plan. All of them men, and all of them she wished she could punch square in the nose. Oh no, she couldn’t do that now. Not as the newly instated director of S.H.I.E.L.D. She had to fight with her words now, and her policies. No time to take out sexist male operative with her fists, as much as she wanted to.

In her very first meeting as director of S.H.I.E.L.D, she had one and only one directive listed on her agenda:

**FIND STEVE ROGERS**

A few of the agents in attendance chuckled, some whispered to each other, and some looked outright disgusted. She ignored them and pushed forward. She finally had the resources she needed, and putting together a capable search team became priority one. 

When she received pushback at a meeting with the higher-ups in Washington, she made her case simply:

“Steve Rogers was and is the most important person in what has become S.H.I.E.L.D, and it is only right that we use our every effort to find him.”

“And what of your rumored relationship with Mr. Rogers? Is that not the impetus for this mission?” some stuffy old guy in a frumpy suit questioned her.

“Rumored? Oh no, there is no rumor, it is absolutely true. Steve Rogers is the man that I love, and we will find him and bring him back.”

Audible groans and visible eyerolls filled the room. 

“This is lunacy!” another stuffy old guy who looked like he was no fun at parties commented, “Steve Rogers has been M.I.A. for over five years now, there’s no way he’s still alive.”

“Where this is no hope, there is no life. And as long as I am alive, there remains hope that Steve Rogers can be found.”

The Washington officials threatened revoking Peggy’s promotion to end her campaign, but relented when she revealed her ace in the hole: Howard Stark. Howard was a dear (and occasionally frustrating) friend of Peggy’s, and a boon to the U.S. Government with his weapons contracts. They’d be foolish to let him go, and Peggy told them as such - “If I go, Howard goes.” Howard called into the meeting himself and confirmed, stating, “Peggy is the best person for the job, and a needed change up there in Washington. And she could take you all in a fight, so I’d do what she says.” 

She called their bluffs and they folded like the cheap suits they were dressed in.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A few months later, the day came that would change Peggy’s life forever.

She can remember everything very vividly about the night - the smell of bourbon from the glass on her desk, the chill in the air from the snowy winter night, the faint sound of Christmas music playing from one of the offices down the hall. Christmas music annoyed her to a degree - most of it she found unlistenable. But she tolerated it from her colleagues, never wanting to be the one to rain on other’s parades. 

It was a week before Christmas, and she had been burning the midnight oil at the offices, as she was known to do often. Her search team had been combing the Arctic for months, and Peggy herself had visited the search sites to help and to boost morale. But she had been needed back at the S.H.I.E.L.D offices, so she left the work back to her capable agents. That bit nagged at her, she loved being a hands on leader, but she knew she was better served here in D.C.

She was ready to pack it in the for the night - holidays had always been a drab time of the year for her - hence the bourbon, when the telephone rang.

“We found him. We found Rogers.” the voice at the other end of line said faintly. Everything after that was a blur. The phone dropped from her hand to the floor. The next thing she could remember was standing outside of the S.H.I.E.L.D airfield in the blistering cold as she got ready to board their private aircraft.

When they reached the crash site, she was first off the plane, rushing to the medical encampment they had set up. Peggy rushed past everyone into the tent, and there she saw him: frozen pristinely in a metal medical chamber, not unlike the one used to transform him into Captain America. He looked exactly as she remembered him.

“Oh Steve,” she said softly, tears streaming down her cold red cheeks, running her hand over the glass cover that displayed his face.

“It’s a miracle of science that he’s still alive,” one of the doctors interrupted the moment, “Somehow his enhanced recovery ability kept his body from shutting down over all this time.”

“He always been a fighter,” Peggy noted matter-of-factly, “Let’s bring him home.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“So the beard...you like it?”

“I’ve never found you more attractive to be quite honest.”

“Ouch,” Steve laughed.

“But I’ve always found you to be abnormal level of attractive,” she reassured him.

“Even when I was small and scrawny?”

“Oh  _ especially _ then,” Peggy teased, though it was 100% true. He responded with a smile and a kiss, the long and deep kind that swept her off her feet every time.

It had been a little over a year now since the most important phone call of Peggy Carter’s life. Steve was home. The first thing he did when woke up in the hospital was ask Peggy for that dance. The second thing he did was ask her to marry him. She said yes to both. And then she cried. She never stopped crying in fact. No not continuously, but in the entire year since his return, she cried often. But they were tears of joy, of relief, of gratitude. He was home, and she never wanted to let him go again.

This would be the Christmas they’d celebrate together, as a married couple, in their new lives together. When Steve returned from the hospital, he moved in with Peggy right away, and she helped get him reacclimated with the world, and things he missed. Peggy had a brand new record player courtesy of Steve, and he was setting up a record to play. It was an album of Christmas music, which normally would cause Peggy to groan, but she didn’t mind this particular Bing Crosby song as it began to play. The lyrics held a special meaning to her:

_ “I'll be home for Christmas _

_ You can plan on me _

_ Please have snow and mistletoe _

_ And presents 'neath the tree _

 

_ Christmas eve will find me _

_ Where the love light gleams. _

_ I'll be home for Christmas _

_ If only in my dreams.” _

  
  



End file.
